it's quite Ood, isn't it? [/millionth Ood/odd joke]

[mezzanineview]

Getting caught up fannishly!

Social commentary aside, I didn't see a ton of content in this episode, but not that I minded all that much. I love seeing Donna deal with terrible situations and fluctuate about whether or not coming with the Doctor was really what she was waiting for in her life. It's nice to see her actually show doubt, as opposed to the way other companions' reactions to ZOMG ALIEN DANGER situations wasn't really explored past the "lol that was weird but fun, let's do it again!" part. i.e. Donna doesn't blindly follow/trust the Doctor to keep her safe all the time, and the Doctor, as of yet, has not promised her anything he can't deliver on, which is good because we don't really need another The Doctor Is The Messiah moments slapping us in the face after The Last Of The Time Lords -__-

At first, Donna's enthusiasm seemed a bit off after her first real adventure with the Doctor involved blowing up Pompeii, and it almost felt like Rose's dynamic with him, but I'm willing to let that go considering the above points and the facts that I love shiny!happy!Doctor more than anything in the whole universe (beside Patrick Stump, but that's another AU for another day).

So yes, I liked this episode more as a character study than anything. I do love the Ood and The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit were actually my two favorite Rose-era stories, but there's only so far you can go with the Slavery Is Bad, Mmkay? line of thinking. I was kind of waiting for something else to happen, as I could've seen the rebellion coming lightyears away, but the scene with the Doctor helping Donna hear the song (also: YAY RETURN OF THE DOCTOR'S TOUCH-TELEPATH CAPABILITES. THIS MEANS MOAR OF DAVID TENNANT'S PRETTYPRETTY HANDS) was gorgeous and made me all heart-achey. And I can't wait for the soundtrack for this series to be released ^__^

Okay. Now, regarding "the end of the Doctor's song." I pondered about this on another person's LJ, so I'm going to copy and paste, with some editing and expanding.

RTD, in all his more-than-slightly-pompous wisdom, is well known to be one massive cocktease. Eye-eee, I don't think he would've let a huge hint like a regeneration be dropped so early, and Very Unsubtley in the third episode of the series. He's not going to go with the obvious, literal meaning of this end-of-song business. David, likewise, is not going to let go of this gig without, like, Serious Consideration or all the hair gel in the world might run out and he'd be too afraid to be the angst muffin we all know and love (and sometimes want to smack upside his pretty little head) without teh hairs of sexxx.

Yes, the Doomsday music was slipped in, and I've been mulling this over for all of three hours *is American (yay...?) and had to wait for download to finish*, but I browsed doctorwho and on one post, someone made the interesting observation that it could be the end of the Doctor's loneliness. And on the comm, they related the end of the Ood's captivity song to the beginning of their happiness, so why can this not relate to the Doctor as well?

And you know what? If they really meant it to signal the end of the current Doctor's reign, they would have played the Doctor's theme. But they didn't. the cue was from Doomsday, ergo, "she is returning" + "your song will end" + return of Ood happiness = return of the Doctor's happiness! \o/ Though, how fleeting this happiness is, I cannot say, as we all know RTD loves his emo!Doctor.



And point.

But like I said, I'll take smiley Doctor any day of the week and twice on Sunday.



Final notes that don't really fit anywhere else: terrible lack of Donna's teimboobz in this one, YAY BLUE SUIT (EFF DA HATERS), and wtf was up with David's hair? It was awesome the last two episodes, but this ep it looked like a blind gardener took a weed whacker to it while he was asleep and he wasn't clever enough with the hair gel to fix it up :/ Also, the claw chase was awesome, if unnecessary, and we got a flash of Tennant bum ^__^ I'd say overall it was a success.


EDIT Forgot, but next week is the return of Martha fucking Jones, and all of Freema's bad acting aside, it does make me smile :-) I love seeing old companions return (hence why I was so happy when Jack came back in Utopia), and I'm hoping that the Doctor fesses up to his treatment of Martha to her face, not just mentioning it to Donna in Partners in Crime. I also hope they don't bring up Ye Olde Doctor Crush unless it's to bury it once and for all, then they can finally have the smiley happy Doctor/companion relationship that was sorely missing in series 3 and everyone's better for it.

As an aside, I got caught up on the episodes on Torchwood Martha was on (I missed the majority of the series because I didn't have the time to download all the episodes, so I picked and choosed and avoided anything that was Gwen-centric), and was very pleasantly surprised. She was by far more likable and worked very well with the Torchwood team, didn't overstay her welcome, and the sequence in Reset with her and Owen working in tandem was one of my favorite Torchwood scenes ever. If rumors are true and she is joining Torchwood for next series (if there is one), I'll miss Owen terribly, but I wouldn't mind her taking up residence and I hope to whatever deity there is that Rose will join up too and occasionally see the Doctor and give David Tennant a reason to guest star on Torchwood, but this is mostly speculation and wishful thinking.


EDIT the second And lastly, one inappropriately hot animation



^__^

Okay, must cut myself off from the interwebs if I expect to get any schoolwork done.

Comments

[bluejbird.livejournal.com]

Things are shaping up to be Pretty. Ood.?

I'm enjoying the new season of DW more than I expected to. I hate Catherine Tate a lot (hated her before she was even in the show) so the fact I'm actually liking Donna is filling me with both surprise and glee.

[vinylsigns.livejournal.com]

I AM ASHAMED THAT THE THOUGHT NEVER EVEN OCCURRED TO ME. My internets, you can have them.

Were you another that disliked the constant ANGSTANGSTANGST in series 3? It's pretty much precisely why I liked/like series 1 and 2/4 in contrast, because the Doctor isn't being as callous/not treating his companion very well. I felt bad for Martha, even if the writers didn't live up to her potential in any real capacity.

Is this just a UK thing, disliking Catherine Tate? I understand she has a comedy show and people's opinions are very polar opposite on her as a companion, but I think Donna's rather brilliant :-) The only real non-DW thing I've seen Tate in is the comedy relief thing she did with Tennant, and I suspect I missed an in-joke or two, but it was hilar.

[bluejbird.livejournal.com]

Shame on you! I was expecting you to roll your eyes and go 'haha, old joke, lets move on, shall we? Allons-y!' or whatever. (Also I now want Bandom/Doctor Who crossover wherein Ryan Ross raids the Doctors awesome wardrobe for vintage clothing and SCARVES and Brendon fiddles with the Tardis controls and breaks something and JWalk doesn't even notice the aliens wandering around whatever world they end up on cos he is that stoned and Spencer is suitably unimpressed until they get to the Planet of the Beards where he is instantly hailed as a returning god).

I have, for the most part, adored all of the New Who seasons. My issue with the last season was the way that they seemed to feel that the only option was to have a companion who fell in love with the Doctor all over again. The angst was ridiculous, Rose's shadow was too big, considering how many companions the Doctor has had over the years (I realise that many fans had never seen Classic Who eps at all, but you'd be forgiven for thinking Rose was the only person in the history of the Universe that the Doctor had cared about, which is not true). I loved Martha, despite how often she turned out to be 2D through some poor script writing (don't even get me started on her Torchwood eps) and possibly not particularly stunning acting.

The thing with Catherine Tate is that we had her on our TV screens for...gosh, 3 or 4 years before that Xmas ep. I don't know if you've ever seen her comedy programme, but it's one of those types that's funny the first couple of times, and then it really isn't anymore. Plus one of her catchphrases really took hold amongst the...well, the chav population, I guess. If I ever have to hear someone do the whole 'Do I look bovva'd tho' spiel again, I might punch myself in the face until I blackout. Unfortunately, Donna in the Xmas ep was very similar to some of Tate's characters on her show, who by then had become less amusing and more annoying, hence the...slightly unfavourable response to her over here. I have to say, so far she is impressing me, and I have gone from expecting to hate her to being pleasantly surprised to, I suspect, growing to like her by the end of the season.

Um. Sorry! World's longest comment ever? I get a bit ranty, it seems! Oops?

[vinylsigns.livejournal.com]

I dub this AU That Needs To Happen. All that's missing is that Brendon tries to fix whatever he broke on the console with gum and Ryan trying to walk around in the fourth Doctor's get-up ^__^

True, very very true, and that's why I love Donna so much. RTD's got such a hard-on for the Doctor that it bleeds into all the companions he'd written--Rose, Martha, Jack--but with Donna that rules were laid down from the beginning: no fancying allowed. I myself am trying to catch up on the Classic Who series (almost done with Five, a Doctor I decided to start with after Time Crash dragged me without protest into the awesomness that is Doctor Who). Not that I have anything against any of the New Who companions, esp. Rose because there's a ton of wank about her and I, frankly and unashamedly, love her to bits, but knowing there's an almost mythological history of the series, I never once thought that Rose would overshadow the entire universe, even though I'd not seen anything but the new series.

Regarding Martha and her Torchwood eps (and her return DW eps), I rather like companions returning in any capacity, and her and Jack reminiscing briefly about the Doctor was nice, kind of like a worn pair of jeans. It almost made me want to watch series three again, but I wasn't sure if I could handle Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks again :/ Freema is most definitely not the best actress, but she does have her moments of passable-ness.

Long comments are my favorite--I don't have enough people on my flist that are DW/TW fans ;__;

[(Anonymous)]

Aww, Martha is my favorite companion! It's wierd how some people just totally disagree and think she's not a great actress. I think it's all about the way she gasps when she gets scared... It sounds a bit wierd, but that's like the only thing that bugs me about her. The way she saved the world was awesome, her in the last few episodes of Series 3 was amazing. If you like Rose do you have to dislike Martha? It often seems to happen that way.

[vinylsigns.livejournal.com]

If you read carefully, you'd know I didn't bash on Martha :/ No disrespect meant. I'm a rather passionate believer in the Love All Companions school of thought, my dear.

[symphonic-dame.livejournal.com]

I picked and choosed and avoided anything that was Gwen-centric
You no like Gwen? much?

Also, am I the only one who likes Jack/Gwen?

Okay, must cut myself off from the interwebs if I expect to get any schoolwork done.
I tell myself that all the time & it never happens -_- Damn you, shiny intranets!! I'm not s'pposed to be on right now!!

[PS: Would you happen to remember which ep of DW has the Doctor regenerating his hand & where I can possibly get it? A friend has told me about it & now I'm planning to include it in my big regeneration project of doom :D]

[vinylsigns.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeah, Gwen is so not my favorite character. You know, I really did like her back in early series 1, when she was still fresh and basically your character that was the access card to the world of alien fighting and kickassery, but once she started having an affair with Owen and lusting after Jack when she had a fianceeand basically telling Jack she'd drop Rhys for him if he gave the word ON HER WEDDING DAY and being unbearably self-righteous and dealing out orders like she'd been around for years and years, I lost my liking of her. To say the least.

I don't know, you might not be the only one. I'm definitely not one.

The Doctor gets his hand chopped off and regenerates it in The Christmas Invasion (Christmas episode before the start of series two) and it's brought up gain in Utopia, The Sound of Drums, and The Last of the Time Lords :D Let me know if you need help on that post, as I am very happy yo help.

[symphonic-dame.livejournal.com]

Oh good. I'm not the only one who hated Gwen/Owen. It was such bad fanservice, blech. I think I may have looked away during their scenes together XD

before the start of series two
Ah, so it was Eccleston? For some reason I kept thinking Tennant.

And thanks!!

[vinylsigns.livejournal.com]

No, it was Tennant, but it was the Christmas episode, yanno? It was the tenth Doctor's first adventure, even though he's missing for about 70% of it :D